Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal has accused the National Citizen Party and their student organization, Democratic Student Council, of rehabilitating Chhatra League leaders and activists.
On Friday, Chhatra Dal issued this allegation through a press release sent to the media. The statement was signed by the central office secretary of Chhatra Dal, Jahangir Alam.
The release also condemned the blaming of Chhatra Dal for an incident involving Sarjis Alam, the chief organizer (North region) of the National Citizen Party, and a confrontation with students from a private university in Bashundhara.
The release said that on March 5, an unpleasant and unwanted incident occurred between Sarjis Alam, a leader of the National Citizen Party, and students from private universities.
However, it also noted a concerning tendency to intentionally implicate Chhatra Dal in such unpleasant incidents across the country. This is alarming, the statement added.
It continued: “The recent tense relationship between the top leaders of the National Citizen Party and Democratic Student Council with students of private universities is well-known to all politically aware citizens of the country.”
“The earlier hostility led Sarjis Alam to face protests from students of private universities, including North South University,” it added.
The release further explained that the dispute between Sarjis Alam and the students of North South University originated from the ongoing internal conflict between the National Citizen Party and the Democratic Student Council regarding the ongoing issues between Dhaka University and private universities.
However, it regretted that Sarjis Alam tried to politicize the incident by blaming Chhatra Dal on Facebook. His claims were entirely baseless and fabricated, according to Chhatra Dal.
The release condemned Sarjis Alam’s statements, calling private university students “terrorists, criminals, and tokais” which it claimed insulted all students from educational institutions across the country.
The statement further said that Alam’s comments undermined the remarkable sacrifices made by private university students during the mass uprising in July-August. Chhatra Dal demanded that Sarjis Alam withdraw his statement.
The press release clarified: "There were no organizational activities of Bangladesh Nationalist Party's student wing (Chhatra Dal) at the incident site. No leaders or activists from Chhatra Dal at North South University were present at the location. There was no conflict between Chhatra Dal and Sarjis Alam."
The release further said that they were reviewing whether any Chhatra Dal members were present during the conflict between Sarjis Alam and the students of North South University, and were in the process of gathering information.
If any Chhatra Dal member had any minimal involvement, the organization would sincerely apologize. At the same time, they condemned and protested against the attempt to shift the blame of the incident to Chhatra Dal.
